


every year, on your birthday

by HereComeDatBoi



Series: you're the one that's making me strong [10]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Gen, Humor, M/M, Married Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Parenthood, Post-Canon, Soft Shiro (Voltron), They are married, adashi babies, and you will after reading this trust me, except not because NO ONE DIES ON MY WATCH, four of them, i'm a fic writer i live to make you smile, please read this, they are dads, what even are tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 13:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18605155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HereComeDatBoi/pseuds/HereComeDatBoi
Summary: On the morning of his fortieth birthday, Shiro wakes up to the sound of Adam singing.





	every year, on your birthday

**Author's Note:**

> To everyone who's taken the time to love these soft dorks with me...thank you so, so much.

On the morning of his fortieth birthday, Shiro woke up alone.

Adam’s indent on the bed was cool and dry beside him, and when he opened his eyes and rolled upright he found the window open, with its long white curtains blowing lazily back and forth like clouds in the early spring breeze. Across from him the double doors to their room were shut, partly blocking out the sounds of laughter and frying ham from the kitchen―but not the sweet lilt of Adam’s singing, just as deep and warm and bright as it was on the day Shiro first heard it nearly twenty-five years ago.

 _“Rest your tired eyes awhile_  
_Sweet is thy baby’s smile_  
_Angels are guarding, and they watch o’er thee._

 _“Sleep, sleep, lullabee,_  
_Here on your papa’s knee_  
_Angels are guarding_  
_And they watch o’er thee._

 _“The koel sings a fluting song_  
_She sings to thee the whole day long_  
_Wee fairies dance o’er hill and dale_  
_For very love of thee.”_

“But Papa, we’re all awake,” he heard Himeko say. “Who’re you singing to?”

“I’m singing to tou-chan, honey,” Adam laughed, having apparently finished cooking the ham. “He’s still sleeping, right? Oh, no― _Yasu-chan, rukh jao!_ Put that down. _Now_ , or you’re not getting a bite of cake after lunch _._ ”

“No fair _,_ ” complained their youngest daughter, Yasuko. “It’s yummy.”

“It is not,” muttered Adam. “Eggs taste nicer cooked, baby. Just trust me on that one.”

“...I don’t wanna.”

“Go into the living room with _onee-chan_ and make your cards for tou-chan, okay?” interrupted Sonia, followed by the familiar sound of two groaning toddlers being bundled out of the kitchen. “You didn’t finish them yesterday.”

“We did so.”

“There’s only one.”

“From both of us.”

“See, it has ‘parkles.”

Shiro laughed into his pillow and heaved himself out of bed, making it halfway to the door before stopping and changing his mind. Whatever Adam and the girls were doing out there was a surprise, most likely, and he’d rather give up his good arm than ruin his daughters’ fun. They were growing so fast, these days...Sonia would be _twelve_ that November, and he wondered how long it would be before surprise birthdays became a thing of the past; her first term at the Garrison was starting in late September, and Amla and Yasuko would be going to preschool, leaving his side for the first time in their (admittedly chaotic) lives.

He found his way to the bathroom and showered to the tune of the faulty gas range sputtering under a saucepan, washed his white hair to the melody of Sonia and Himeko belting old Spanish pop songs―dried it to the sound of Adam scolding them for being too loud, saying _Hush, your tou-chan’s tired. He barely gets enough sleep these days._

“That’s true,” Shiro laughed to himself, spitting a mouthful of pink foam into the sink. Pidge had given the twins a Sleeping Beauty toothpaste set last Easter instead of chocolate, and even Adam giggled himself into fits the first time he tried it out and found his mouth filled with bubbles. “Sleep is for the weak. Or for dads who don’t have twins.”

Once his teeth were clean he found himself looking into the mirror, searching his face for signs of the joy that seemed to have blossomed into every nerve of his body. The lines around his mouth and eyes looked like laughter, he thought―like the fourteen years of utter _bliss_ his married life had been, right from the day he slipped his old ring back onto Adam’s hand at the Garrison to just the night before, when he and Adam went out for a walk by the river after the children were asleep and kissed each other in the moonlight as if they were sixteen again.

“Thank you,” he whispered, looking past the high windowsill to the place where a bright constellation shone under the cover of darkness―only about six or seven degrees above the northern horizon, invisible to all save Adam and those who shared his blood. Shiro was the one exception to the rule, but even when the stars were veiled by sunlight he often glanced up and murmured a prayer of thanksgiving when he remembered that only a single act of kindness had spared his husband’s life and the lives of their four little children.

“Thank you, for _everything._ ”

_Love. Love and love only, nothing more or less._

“Takashi?” Adam called, startling Shiro out of his reverie as he tapped at the bedroom door. “Are you awake, moonlight? Breakfast’s ready.”

“I am,” answered Shiro, pulling on his clothes and yanking open the door to pull his husband into a kiss. “Good morning, love.”

“Mm, good morning,” Adam hummed, kissing him again. “Happy birthday, darling. Did you sleep okay with all the noise?”

“I did, but...are they ready for me? I don’t want to come out before they’ve finished their cards and everything.”

“They’re all done, baby. Come on, let’s have breakfast.”

Four small bodies hit him the second they walked into the living room, screaming at the top of their lungs as Adam slipped into the kitchen. Sonia grabbed onto Shiro’s shoulders and hung there, while Himeko jumped up and clung to his waist like a baby monkey; Amla and Yasuko each wrapped themselves around one of his legs, demanding that he walk to the dining table with all of them still stuck to him.

“Walk, tou-chan!” they insisted, reaching up to tickle Himeko’s bare feet. “Please!”

“I can’t, _janu_. And don’t tickle your sister, she could fall.”

“ _Onee-chan!_ Get off.”

“All of you get off,” sighed Adam. “I’m holding that cake hostage, you hear me? Best behavior from all of you, or no party with Uncle Keith tonight.”

“No!”

“ _Papa!_ ”

But Adam, completely immune to the twins’ puppy eyes as usual, only chivvied them into the dining room and brought out the birthday breakfast. There were eggs with ham, cinnamon waffles with ice cream (the waffles versus pancakes debate had been going on since the two of them were in school, and neither party had given an inch over the last twenty-four years) croquettes fried with onions and green peppers, and―

“Takoyaki?” Shiro whispered, burying his face in Adam’s stomach. “You remembered.”

“I couldn’t forget, honey.” Adam’s soft fingers felt like heaven in his hair, combing back and forth as a teardrop or two soaked into his frayed cotton shirt. “ _Obaa-san_ used to call me like clockwork before your birthday the first few years we were married, to see if I had everything I needed to make it. Of course I wouldn’t forget this year, moonbeam.”

“You don’t like them?” Amla’s lip was trembling, wrenching Shiro’s heart almost in half as she tugged at the sleeve of his sweater. “We don’t _have_ to eat them, tou-chan!”

“Baby, no,” he soothed, bundling both the twins into his arms. “I love them, starshine. I only get to eat them once a year, so I cried because I was happy.”

“Tou-chan’s mummy used to make them on his birthday,” Himeko explained, cuddling up close to Sonia. “But then she died in a plane crash when he was even younger than me, and there was no one to make them anymore.”

“And then _tou-chan_ went to live with his grandparents,” Sonia chimed in. “Obaa-chan knew he liked them, so she made them for him whenever he wanted. But when he went to the Garrison he couldn’t have them at all, not even for his birthday.”

“Then what?” sniffled Yasuko, rubbing her eyes.

“Then tou-chan and Papa got married,” said Himeko, skirting over the war and Shiro’s illness entirely. “And even though he wasn’t with his granny anymore, Papa was there to make _takoyaki_ for him each year. It’s his most favoritest food. Right, tou-chan?”

“Right, sunshine. I just forgot we’d have it this year, since _obaa-chan_ …”

“Are you still sad for her?”

“Always, _soniye._ Even though I’m so happy with you, I...I miss her and my grandfather a lot, sometimes.”

“Would a hug make you feel better, _jaan-e-jaan?_ ” asked Adam, wrapping his arms around Shiro’s waist and pressing their faces together.

“Lots better,” Shiro smiled, closing his eyes as Sonia and Himeko squashed themselves up against him on either side. “Thank you, sweetheart.”

There was only merriment at the table after that, merriment and melted ice cream and Himeko complaining about the broken yolk of her egg, a mild dispute about the one waffle Yasuko had that was bigger than all of Amla’s, Sonia turning the meal into a lesson about how to eat properly with a knife and fork (directed at the twins, who were dipping their waffles into the ice cream and eating them with their fingers) and long tender looks between the two harried fathers, who scarcely noticed the ruckus going on around them even when Yasuko tried to fool Sonia into believing she had eaten a spider.

“Maybe I did eat a spider. So what if I did?”

Amla gaped. “But they’re poison. What if you die?”

“Then Papa and tou-chan would die of grief. And so would Aunty Pidge.”

“I love you so much, my _makhnaa_ ,” said Adam, pressing two kisses to each of Shiro’s knuckles and ignoring the girls completely. “So, so much. My most beloved darling, my sun―”

“Do we have the evening alone?” Shiro murmured, feeling his heart stutter in his chest as Adam’s cheeks went scarlet. “That was the other half of the present, wasn’t it?”

“Takashi, you’re ruining my surprise.”

“But I’m right, though.”

“Yeah, you are. They’re going to sleep in the main house with Shanti’s kids tonight, and then you and I are going to sleep like the dead for twelve hours straight for the first time since the twins learned to walk.”

“This is already the best birthday ever. Sounds like a plan to me.”

And with that they turned their attention back to their chattering daughters, holding hands under the table as the next year of Shiro’s life seemed to blossom in front of him like a flower―wholesome and fresh and full to the brim of promise, made lovely by the hearts of his husband and children and all the family he had fought with the universe to find―

“Adam, honey?”

“Mm?”

“I love you too.”

“I know, sweetheart. I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on tumblr/twitter at @datboicomehere!


End file.
